Beneath Liquid Mirrors
by Elliesmile
Summary: Nobody, not even the Merfolk themselves, quite knew how they had come to be in the lake below the mountain. But in this lake prophecies are coming to light as the younger generations of man and sea-nymph fight for their new beginnings
1. Siren Lore

The water was cold in the deeper troughs of the lake. The autumn winds chilled the waves as they crested softly against the cold, compacted sand on the shore, only to be pushed back outwards again. The cold continued to deepen with every day as the weeks drew closer to deep winter. And that is when they hibernated. Some called them 'foam-nymphs' or 'sirens' and to their closest land-dwelling cousins, the wood elves, they were known as 'Oaris'. But in the common tongue, they were most usually known simply as mermaids. And in this lake, there were very few.

Nobody, not even the mermaids themselves, quite knew how they had come to be in the long lake below the mountain. The sea was leagues away and the rivers that had once been great and powerful were now smaller and tamer. The shoal of merfolk, male and female alike, no more than 200 of them, told legends among themselves as to how they came to be in this place. They told of one common ancestor, a siren of fantastic power and beauty only matched by her land-dwelling elven kin who swam, with her mate, up the great roaring rivers from beneath the ocean whilst with child, to birth her offspring in safety and away from those who would use her child against her to acquire her rare sorcery. Against current and tide they swam, dodging the spears of men and the arrows of elves who saw sea-dwellers moving up land as a bad omen until she finally reached the waters of the long lake, overlooked by the lonely mountain. Further legend claimed that the siren, named Nerthus, arrived at the lake with her lover as the dwarves of Erebor had begun to thrive, mining gems of rare beauty to trade with the many other civilisations that had begun to spring up across middle-earth.

Nerthus' mate quickly withered and died in the freshwater whilst Nerthus herself and her children thrived and grew to be immaculately beautiful beings. She and her offspring remained hidden beneath the surface, taking refuge in caves, the entrances to which were submerged leaving the caves themselves with pockets of air inside, perfect for the safety of her children. But Nerthus, after her mate's death, grew scared of the humans and dwarves around her and feared for her children's lives. So when a man or dwarrow would venture too close to her caves she would pull them beneath the surface and drown them, leaving their bodies on the land to be found.

One day however, many years after first settling, Nerthus, who had been desperate to protect her family and new grandchildren, had pulled an intruder into the water and once their body had gone limp she lifted the figure away only to realise she had drowned a tiny dwarven child that had been playing with his family on the bank. Nerthus heard the screams of his parents above her and so she swam upwards and broke the surface of the lake for the first time in decades. She placed the boy on the rocks and placed her hands over his stilled heart, summoning what magic was left in her. To the disbelief of the dwarf family watching, the small boy spluttered back to life and heaved for breath. The dwarven family did not care that Nerthus had drowned their child, only that she had brought him back. They rushed to her from the bank, leaning down to the water and praising her magic. They offered her all the jewels and gold they owned, so grateful were they that this siren had saved their only child.

But Nerthus would accept nothing. She only smiled, brushed her blue-black hair over her shoulders, placed a kiss on the boy's forehead and submerged herself beneath the surface. Whilst hiding her sadness in humility, she mused over the loss of her sorcery, reincarnation taking what was left of her magic and leaving her empty and weak, close to death.

But later that very day, as the sun began to set low over the lake on that evening in mid-summer her children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, all 50 of them, swam to her and told her of a remarkable happening. The lake's surface had been covered with many thousands of millions of flower petals in beautiful reds oranges and yellows, making the surface of the lake seem to be formed of live fire. And so Nerthus gathered her strength and swam with her family to the surface, pushing through the many petals. When they broke the surface the bank erupted in cheers and the sirens found that thousands of dwarves and men had lined the lake in thanks of the boy whose life Nerthus had saved and had spread petals across the water as a sign of respect.

As Nerthus' family swam towards the old pier, two figures stepped forwards. These were the dwarven king and his new queen but sadness was etched upon their faces, despite the joy of those around them. The queen lent down to the water and Nerthus looked upwards and their eyes met in understanding. The dwarf queen had been with child but its life force had darkened and vanished, despite the child still being present inside her. The queen implored Nerthus to resurrect her still foetal child after having heard of her ability earlier that day. The thousands of onlookers on the banks watched in anticipation.

Nerthus shook her head sadly, unable to resurrect the child as she no longer had magic. The dwarf queen lay down on the pier in tears and sobbed and her king joined her. Their tears fell through the wooden slats and into the lake so that Nerthus and her family were so taken aback with their pain that they agreed they must help.

And so every siren in that lake gathered around the queen as they lay her face up in the water surrounded by petals and focused their magic on her. They chanted and sang, much to the amazement of the crowd until the water glowed and shone. When the queen opened her eyes she could once again feel her child living inside her. Nerthus and her family asked for nothing, only that Nerthus herself be forgiven for the drownings of many innocents who had stood to close to the homes of the foam nymphs. The crowds were horrified. They had no idea that these drownings had not been accidents as they had previously believed. Nerthus and her family had drowned many hundreds of people over the course of two centuries, which had been believed to be accidents occurring to those who fell into the lake.

In anger, men and dwarves who had come armed to the lake drew their weapons and some struck lights and began to torch the petals on the water's surface. The dwarf king and queen tried, in vain to calm their subjects and the men of Dale and to ask forgiveness for the sirens. Their pleas went unheard, however and the lake was cast alight as the night fell.

Nerthus and her kin tried to flee the wrath of men and dwarves but few of them were fast enough

Those that were too slow or were still exhausted from their magical exertion were captured and had their scales pulled or ripped away from their fins. Those that survived this were hung by their arms above the water to dry out and were eventually burned alive in the sunlight when morning came.

Nerthus herself managed to flee with 10 of her family until they reached the bottom of the lake whereupon Nerthus stopped swimming and sank to the deepest crevice of the deepest crack in the deepest trough of the long lake. There, she prophesised to her surviving family, burned and blackened for eternity that the merfolk of the lake would remain beneath the waves until flames summoned them to the surface again whereupon they could exact their monstrous, bloody revenge. The malice and hate in her body settled as she closed her eyes and died in the dark.

And that, the sirens said is where they remained. The merfolk continued to breed and thrive in the black places of the lake, never once breaking the surface. There they festered in the dark, their scales turning black and their skin turning to paper and becoming ugly and waifish in their stagnation. And there they would wait to exact their revenge until the day when the lake of Esgaroth once again burned in the night…

-X-

 **Ooooh… foreboding!**

 **But seriously, thanks for reading. This story will be continued although I don't know whether to make it an** _ **'AU!EverybodyLives'**_ **kinda thing where Thorin and Fili and Kili are alive and stuff and Bilbo hangs around.**

 **But don't worry. None of them are gonna fall in love with mermaids or any shit like that. MermaidxDwarf. Can you imagine it?! *shudders and vomits in mouth a little bit***

 **Anyway…constructive criticism is always welcome and I'd love to know which characters you'd like to see interacting with the Merfolk, I haven't decided myself yet**

 **Love always, Ellie x**


	2. Vahri

Vahri brushed past the veined cocoons around her as she checked on the state of her now vulnerable kin. Hibernation was a difficult time for the merfolk in the long lake. They lost sirens every year to the cold and food was scarce in these waters. The men of Laketown took the slowest, fattest fish and the foam nymphs were lucky to catch more than a few mouthfuls. This made it difficult to store up food reserves in their bodies to survive the winter.

These cocoons were spun by the merfolk themselves in the days leading up to their long sleep. Gels and slimes were secreted through glands beneath their gills which then hardened in the cold water. The merfolk could then climb inside their cocoons and then sleep until the waters warmed again and they could venture out to feed.

Vahri, however, had not begun to spin her own cocoon nor would she anytime soon. She had been selected this year to stand guard over her family that needed protecting from predators of the deep. Over the centuries of breeding in this lake they had grown smaller than their sea-faring kin, in order to reduce the amount of food needed to sustain them. This, unfortunately, made them prime targets for freshwater sharks and larger fish that saw them as easy prey. Vahri often considered what her life would have been like had she been as big and as beautiful as her grandmother swore their ancestors had once been. She caught her reflection in the crystal growths her family cultivated at the bottom of the lake as she passed them. All Vahri saw was the same milky white eyes and translucent skin of her kin around her. Her tail was the same pitch black as everybody else's and her frame was stunted and warped, her gills and limbs being paper thin and dangerously delicate.

"Getting a little vain, aren't we?" The owner of the voice came slinking out from behind her, his fin swishing backwards playfully

"Narius" Vahri sighed "What do you want?"

The boy floated forward, swirling around Vahri with a grin on his face "To play of course. Or we could go hunting. Or maybe…"

"Enough" Vahri snapped "I have a job to do. And besides, you don't need an excuse to prove you're faster than me. I already know. So go and hunt by yourself because I'm not interested. Or better yet, go into hibernation. It's where you're supposed to be"

"Oh sweetheart, will you let me finish?" Narius put on that voice that he knew Vahri couldn't resist and leant forward, taking her hands "What I was going to say was that we could swim…up"

Vahri sighed "We're not supposed to go into shallow water unless we absolutely have to. Go to sleep" she said sadly "I'll be here when you wake up in a few months…"

Narius raised another brow "I don't think so. I'm staying awake with you. I'm not leaving you…alone. So that's decided"

There was an awkward pause. Narius had never been good at emotion. He didn't tell people he cared and he didn't show it. This declaration of slight affection was the most uncomfortable that Vahri had ever seen him look and it wasn't a surprise when he moved the topic on quickly

"Besides…" he regained his momentum, grasping hold of Vahri's hands and pulling her upwards, towards lighter water "I didn't mean that kind of 'up'. I meant all the way up…"

Vahri ripped her hands away from his "To the surface? No! No Narius. We're not going up there"

"Well I am" he shrugged "With or without you; I'm going to go up there. I'm going to be the first foam-nymph to break the surface in hundreds, maybe even thousands of years and I won't be stopped"

Vahri was furious "Do it! I don't care. I'm staying here and protecting my family, like I should"

Narius just shrugged and laughed boyishly as he swam upwards, only glancing down at Vahri once on his way up "If we all did exactly as we should, the world would be a very dull place"

And then he was gone. Narius had reached the top of the crevice to shallower water and had begun to swim towards laketown.

Vahri settled down in the crystal formations to wait for his return.

But Narius did not return. Even as the water quietened and night fell, Narius had not yet come back home and Vahri began to get worried…


	3. Oxygen

Vahri had seriously begun to consider the idea of waking up every siren in hibernation to lead a search party for Narius. It had been hours and he still had not come down. The night had fallen and it was long past time when he should have returned.

The stillness of the water was interrupted by a sudden black dart. Narius appeared directly in front of her with the biggest grin she'd ever seen on his face.

"You won't believe it!" he began; ready to drag Vahri up to the surface with force

She screamed loudly and Narius jumped

"What is wrong with you?!" she cried "I was going to wake the others up to come and find you. I thought you'd been speared or killed!"

Narius rolled his eyes "None of that matters! The dwarves are back!"

Vahri just squinted "What dwarves? Where are they back from? I didn't know any had left"

He laughed in frustration "That's the point! We've been down here so long that we had no idea there have been no dwarves for over 150 years!"

There was a pause and Narius sighed

"150 years ago, the men suddenly appeared, building this town on our lake. We never knew why but now I do!"

"Tell me!" Vahri begged. The arrival of the men had been one of the great mysteries of her childhood. She had always wanted to know where they came from and why

Narius smiled "150 years ago, there was a city of men called Dale at the base of the lonely mountain. It traded with the dwarves who lived there and then with other parts of the east. But the Dwarves hoarded gold and it attracted a dragon by the name of Smaug. He ransacked Dale and destroyed it on the way to Erebor and the men moved here to be safe"

Vahri nodded "Okay. But where do the dwarves come in?"

"That's where it gets exciting!" Smaug took Erebor and the dwarves fled, leaving their homeland with only their lives. But there was a prince amongst them by the name of Thorin Oakenshield who swore he would reclaim his home for his people and slay the dragon. So he's back, 150 years later to take what's rightfully his. They've arrived in the town before departing for the mountain and the whole of laketown is celebrating"

Narius looked on the point of swooning with excitement and Vahri had to admit she was rather taken up with the new happenings as well. So much so that she hadn't realised that Narius had already guided them towards shallow water. Vahri looked up. All she had to do was reach her hand upwards and she'd break the surface

"You could see everything up there" Narius tempted "C'mon. Take a chance"

And so she did. Vahri took every ounce of courage she had in her body and brought it to mind. She could see the world above where she lived and breathe its air and watch its people. What she had always wanted.

With one flick of her tail, her head broke the surface. She tried to take a breath but began to choke, her throat started burning and her nose ached. She quickly dived back under the water where Narius was waiting with an eyebrow raised in mirth

"I can't breathe up there!" she cried "What is wrong with you? I could have suffocated"

Narius just rolled his eyes and took her shoulders "You need to focus your breathing. You need to take shallower breaths. There's far more oxygen up there than there is down here and your body isn't used to it. Give it a chance"

Vahri couldn't believe she was doing this. This went against basic survival instinct. She could die up there. And for what? A glance at some dwarves?

But, of course, Narius had tempted her. So she kept hold of his arm, took a breath and forced her head upwards.

He was right, the air was oxygen rich and heavy in her lungs and she felt a little dizzy. But taking shallower breaths helped her overcome it quickly.

"It'll pass" Narius dismissed, obviously referring to her spinning head "Just look around you"

Vahri did. She was taken aback instantly. It was brighter here, despite it being night. Things like red and orange tongues flickered in bowls attached to the structures and these appeared to show the way across the huge form of laketown itself. Vahri had only ever seen the bottom of boats and the stilts that held the town fast in the water. She had never seen it from the surface before.

Overwhelmed, Vahri ducked her head back under and shook it to clear the dizziness. Narius swam up next to her

"Want to explore a bit? See the dwarves? I know where they are…"


	4. Ellen

**Just wanted to say a huge thank you to 'Snowdrop56' who has reviewed this story twice already. And a quick and elaborate bow to those of you who favourited or followed this story. Your support is much appreciated**

 **Ellie x**

Narius had begun to grow frustrated. Vahri was taking far too long looking at every little thing as they made their way through the water, underneath the wooden pathways of laketown and only poking their heads up to see where they were.

The female siren was marvelling at every little thing. She adored the little boats and fishing nets and she loved to poke her hands up to prod the bottom of the wooden structures. Occasionally she would hyperventilate as an _actual living person_ would walk past. On legs, things she'd never seen before and could only guess at how they worked.

"Come on!" Narius growled for the third time in two minutes "Do you want to see the dwarves or not? There's a mutant dwarf with them. He's tiny and has massive feet. C'mon! I wanna look at them again!"

Vahri snapped out of her leg-obsessed state and swam on with Narius, trying not to lag behind until they finally reached the town square that sat before the town hall, home of the master of laketown.

People were, indeed, out celebrating. Many torches were lit along the streets and people were handing out food from trays. There was music and dancing across the central platform and all down the wooden slatted streets. But Vahri and Narius could not see the dwarves anywhere.

"There!" Vahri pointed, as the two floated just beneath the platform, hearing the dancing above. The dwarves were sat at a long table on the far side of the deck, "I can see them, they're…"

Narius pulled her under the water quickly and shook her "What is wrong with you? Don't shout, people will see us!"

Just as Narius had said, people began to walk to the edge of the decking, wandering if somebody had fallen in.

The two quickly swam along the underneath of the deck to avoid being spotted and into a tiny side street, barley big enough to fit a canoe into, and hid, their eyes just poking out of the water.

"What are you doing?" a small voice came from behind them and the two young merfolk spun around to come face to face with a little girl. She could have been no older than eight or nine with short dirty-blonde hair tied in plaits. Her brown eyes brimmed with curiosity "Aren't you cold?"

Vahri and Narius looked up at her. Humans had not seen the mermaids in hundreds of years and they were probably considered extinct or had passed into legend.

"Erm, no" Narius smiled weakly "It's… errr… warmer than it looks"

"We like it down here" Vahri nodded as both she and Narius tried to swim slowly towards the opening of this little watery side alley that was apparently a dead-end "and we were dirty so we had to wash…"

"Okay" the little girl smiled "Would you like some bread. We baked some for the party"

She held out a little metal tray with unidentifiable blobs of dough on them. The shape was peculiar

"They're dead dragons" she explained, looking very proud of herself "Mommy and I made them and she said I should give them to people who were at the…"

"Ellen! What are you doing? Get away from the water, now!" a voice rang from the end of the alley as a net ascended from beneath the water, yanking up both Vahri and Narius into the cold night air and restraining them a good three foot above the water. The net had obviously been an old fish trap that hung from a spire on one of the roofs that had been unused due to the lack of fish.

The young man who had pulled the lever to spring the trap looked anxious as he headed over to the little girl and pulled her towards the buildings lining the thin street, as far away from the water as possible.

"Let us go!" Vahri yelled, tugging on the rope as it rubbed the scales harshly off her tail. Narius only hissed aggressively, attempting to frighten the boy

"I know what you are!" the boy shouted victoriously, clutching 'Ellen' close to him. He had the same eyes and blonde hair as this little girl and Vahri guessed them to be siblings "You're water-demons! Merfolk come to drag us all to our deaths and eat us!"

"What?" Narius shouted "I'm not eating any of you, disgusting filth. Now, let us go!"

"Pardon me if I don't take your word for it" the youth frowned, pushing his little sister behind him "But I don't think I'll be letting you murder any innocents tonight"

At which point he turned towards the opening of the alley and began to shout "Merfolk! I've caught merfolk! Somebody help"

Narius scoffed "They can't hear, you utter cretin! The music and dancing is too loud. Even if they heard you they'd be too stupid to believe you!"

Vahri looked across at her friend. His antagonizing was not only absurd, but would undoubtedly get them killed

"Ellen, stay here and keep watch" the boy said, kneeling in front of his little sister and taking her hands "I'm going to get help. Do not go near them, okay?"

The little girl nodded and watched as her brother dashed around the corner, his long coat trailing out behind him and his boots hitting the wooden planks hard as he disappeared from sight

"That's my brother, Tristan" Ellen said proudly "He's 18 but he's so rude sometimes"

Narius nodded kindly, attempting to charm the little girl "That's because he's so young. We're wiser than him because we're much older"

Ellen looked fascinated "Really? But… you're so small!" she giggled

He nodded "I know you won't believe us but we're hundreds of years old. Or, at least I am. I'm 214. Vahri here is only 175"

Ellen was in awe "I'm only eight" she gasped

Vahri cut in "We're sorry to ask this, Ellen" she asked, trying to seem friendly "But this rope is really hurting us" she pointed to her own tail where the friction had rubbed off some of her scales. Narius' tail was in a similar state as well as his left shoulder that was red and irritated "Can you please let us out? We just want to go home"

Ellen nodded "Would you like some bread for your journey?" she asked, innocently

"Yes" Vahri and Narius said in unison, trying to speed up the little girl "Just, please, pull the lever and let us down"

The little girl quickly passed two pieces of 'dead dragon' bread through the holes in the net and gleefully ran over to the lever. She pushed it as hard as she could, her face screwing up with the effort until it finally clicked out of place and the net harshly fell back into the water

Vahri and Narius quickly detangled themselves, leaving the net and Narius' piece of bread behind.

They cleared the end of the alleyway just as Tristan came back with two men from the town.

The last thing Vahri saw before she disappeared into the black depths was Ellen, waving gleefully after them


	5. Tristan

"Ellen" he called through the door "Ellen, open up"

There was silence from the other side of the wooden panel. The little girl was clearly upset

"You have to come out sometime, Ellen. You can't stay in there forever"

"Go away, Tristan" came the tiny, shrill response

The boy shrugged, left a glass of milk by the door and went back down the stairs to the kitchen. Where his mother was waiting

"I'm telling you mother, there really were merfolk" he insisted, sitting at the kitchen table opposite her

"I believe you, my darling" she sighed "You wouldn't lie and you're not likely to make such a big mistake"

Tristan sighed and put his head in his hands "The men from the market laughed when they saw the empty net. They thought I'd made it up"

Annice frowned at her son. Almost a man and yet so unwise "There really was no need to yell at your sister like that. It was unkind"

Tristan was furious. He stood up from his chair and slammed his hands down onto the table, startling his mother "She let them go!" he cried "I had them and she let them go because they were 'really nice'. It's insane that you're defending her!"

"She's a child" Annice huffed "She saw goodness in those god-forsaken monsters and she let them go. Don't ask me why, just be glad they didn't take Ellen with them"

Tristan sat back down and dragged his hands down his face before chewing on his thumb "You should have seen them, mother" he stared into space "They'll give me nightmares. The black scales and the grey skin and those eyes! They were soul-less and white and…you couldn't even tell where they were looking!"

The sound of music and cheer erupted from outside their home and Tristan turned his eye back to the window. Suddenly his eyes widened "Oh, God! I forgot Alesia!" and he dashed to the door, swung it open and threw it shut behind him.

Tristan dashed to where he'd left his date to the evening's festivities before he had run off to find his sisters with promises of 'I'll be right back'. The music was louder and there were more people, gathered around the centre of town. Then he spotted her.

Alesia of the beautiful gold hair and the blue eyes and the perfect laugh like every fairy-tale he'd grown up on (in fact, like in every fairy-tale _everyone_ had grown up on) was dancing with somebody else.

"Alesia, hey, I'm back" he smirked

She sighed, continuing to whirl around the with the boy that Tristan now recognised to be Artemis Pyke, every girls prince charming "I can see that, Tess"

"Don't call me Tess, please" he laughed nervously, following the twirling couple around "I was wondering if…"

"No, _Tess_ " she teased, cruelly "I don't want to dance with you or get something to eat with you or go and get a drink with you. I'm perfectly happy here. Our date is over"

Artemis looked down, sheepishly. Tristan wanted to be angry with him but he wasn't a bed person and this whole situation wasn't really his fault.

Alesia sighed and stopped dancing, placing a hand on Tristan's shoulder "Look, I'm sorry but you just ran off and left me, okay? And I just heard this thing about mermaids from my father and you came off as a bit mad and…well, weird. I just don't really…"

"Yeah, no. I get it" Tristan smiled as warmly as he could muster and gestured with a wave between Artemis and Alesia "You two have fun"

He strolled off into a side street and sat on the front steps of a small house to get himself together, illuminated by a single candle on the outside wall of the house opposite

"Well that looked decidedly uncomfortable"

Tristan jumped and launched himself up a step, ready to kick away whoever had surprised him.

Sat next to him with big, blinking blue eyes was the smallest man he'd ever seen. He had huge feet and sandy brown curly hair with a nose that twitched from one side of his face to the other as he sniffed in confusion

"You scared me" Tristan muttered, sitting back down again and dusting himself off in embarrassment

"Sorry. Wasn't my intention" the man mumbled

"Aren't you one of the dwarves?" Tristan asked, curiously

The small man laughed "Who? Me? No! No, no, no. I'm a Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins" the Hobbit extended his hand and Tristan shook it nervously, introducing himself in the process

"I'm their burglar and the general voice of reason" Bilbo explained

Tristan laughed. He'd heard dwarves lacked common sense

Bilbo sniffed again "So, that seemed bad. Back there, I mean"

The boy folded his arms "That's Alesia. She's kind of big around here. I was amazed she said yes in the first place"

Bilbo huffed. "Yeah, there was a girl like that back in the shire. That's where I'm from, by the way; Hobbiton in the shire. But she went to a village dance with me once but went off with somebody else halfway through"

Tristan tried to change the subject "How come you're not sat with the dwarves. Don't they let you sit with them?"

Bilbo laughed "Not at all. In fact, Thorin asked me to sit with him at centre table this time. I just slipped away halfway through. I'm not a party person in all honesty"

The boy nodded "Me neither. I only left the party in the first place to check on my sister, Ellen. Turns out some merfolk were trying to lure her away"

"Merfolk?" Bilbo's head shot up "Like, sea-nymphs?"

Tristan shrugged "A male and a female. Not like the ones in the oceans. The ones here in this lake are dark and malevolent beings. They drag people into the icy water and drown them"

The Hobbit looked horrified "Well, where are they now? Are we at risk?"

"I don't think so. They'll be long gone by now" Tristan shook his head "My little sister cut them loose. By the time I came back with help they were gone and none of the towns-men believed me. Everybody here thinks mermaids are extinct"

"Why don't you?" Bilbo asked in curiosity

"My father" Tristan smiled sadly "He believed the stories… that they were just waiting in the darkest waters. Everybody here thought he was mad. Then he disappeared one day. Mother believed he went looking for the merfolk and he got too close. So they drowned him"

"I'm sorry" Bilbo muttered, giving Tristan a reassuring pat on the arm.

The two sat in sad silence for several minutes before a great booming voice echoed around the corner of the entrance to their small side-street

"Bilbo!? Where are you, burglar!?"

"That's Thorin" Bilbo jumped up and bolted towards the voice, turning quickly to look back at Tristan "I'm sure we'll speak soon, Tristan. Be safe"

And with that, the Hobbit vanished around the corner and left Tristan sitting on the dark steps


	6. The Pier

"That was insane!" Narius practically screamed, looping through the water elegantly and coming to a stop just before slamming into Vahri who was still catching her breath.

"We can't go back there!" she panted, trying to become accustomed to the thin water around her, gasping more to deal with the changing oxygen levels in her lungs

They were still in shallow water but were covered perfectly by the shade of night that had fallen. But it would lift soon; life had begun to surge through the water, smaller fish beginning to come out of hiding. Dawn would soon be upon them

Narius just shook his head "We have to go back, Vahri. Those people, that place! It was wonderful…exhilarating!"

Vahri looked down at the sands beneath her. A few hundred metres ahead of them was the thin crack that would lead to their deep-sea crevice. She shuddered at the thought of crawling back into the dark forever.

"Let's go back" she smiled, gazing up at Narius "Let's go back, now"

He grinned at her "Yes! Vahri, this is brilliant" He grasped hold of her arms and squeezed her tightly but let go of her abruptly when she pulled away

"Vahri? What's wrong?" He looked at her, with his head cocked to the side.

She just shook her head "Narius, your eyes…"

Vahri couldn't explain what she was seeing. The milky white of his eyes was no longer solid. The very centre had a small amount of black fog in it. Just one circle in the middle, barely noticeable but from their close proximity, Vahri could see it beginning to break through the white that covered his entire eye.

When she told him all of this, Narius just shrugged it off and pulled her back towards laketown "I think you're hallucinating" he huffed

When they reached the town again, dawn had begun to break. Most people had returned home except for a few stragglers who were drunkenly lolling around loudly

In the pale light of rising dawn, Vahri and Narius could see a figure sat, dangling his legs over the edge of the outer pier. He hummed sadly to himself. He seemed cold in the night air but he had left his long brown coat beside him rather than wear it

"That's him" Narius whispered "The one who shoved us in the damned net!"

The two mer-folk swam silently beneath the pier and poked their heads up above the water, hiding behind the boys swinging legs as he glanced out onto the lake. Narius resisted the urge to yank the boy beneath the surface. He could still feel the raw edges where the scales had been rubbed raw by the old, fraying rope

"You stay here" Narius whispered beneath the surface "I'm going to check the safest way in. We don't have the cover of light anymore" And with that he disappeared below the surface and Vahri watched as the wake of water behind him stilled quickly

As he vanished into the main town, the boy began to quietly sing to himself. Vahri couldn't help but listen as his voice filled the air

 _The King beneath the mountains,_

 _The King of carven stone,_

 _The lord of silver fountains_

 _Shall come into his own_

 _His crown shall be upholden,_

 _His harp shall be restrung,_

 _His halls shall echo golden_

 _To songs of yore re-sung._

 _The woods shall wave on mountains_

 _And grass beneath the sun;_

 _His wealth shall flow in fountains_

 _And the rivers golden run._

 _The streams shall run in gladness,_

 _The lake shall shine and burn,_

 _And sorrow fail and sadness_

 _At the Mountain-king's return_

"You have the voice of a woman"

Vahri herself had been so entranced by the song and by trying to riddle its meaning that she hadn't heard Narius return from looking ahead. He had swum out in front of the boy and had popped his head out above the water to comment on his singing

The young man yanked his feet up above the surface with a yelp and in his hurry to get away from the male siren that had shocked him, he rolled backwards… off the other side of the pier

Vahri winced as she was splashed by the water and the boy emerged again after a few moments, coughing violently and trying to call for help

Narius only rolled his eyes as the boy scrabbled to get back onto the pier

"Need a hand?" he taunted

"No!" the human shouted, one leg on the pier, trying to pull the rest of himself up but he only toppled back in "Get away!" he cried

"Oh for the love of…" Narius rolled his eyes again "This is painful to watch"

Vahri, swam out from under the pier to get a better view and the boy shrieked again

"You're right" she muttered "Very undignified" Vahri folded her arms as they both watched the boy scrabble to get back onto the platform, which was a good foot and a half above surface level

He stopped struggling and trod water, turning to face the sirens and closing his eyes "Drown me if you want" he sighed in resignation "I'm not afraid of death. Or you"

Narius and Vahri just looked between themselves and reached forward, grabbing an arm each

The boy took a breath of air, prepared to be pulled below the surface before he gasped in surprise. The mer-folk had lifted him back onto the platform of the pier

"We're going to tell you this once" Narius folded his arms across his chest, ensuring to flex his muscles a little for added emphasis and perhaps just to intimidate the boy of slightly weaker build "We don't drown people"

Vahri tried to change the subject as the boy had begun to gape in surprise, his eyes not blinking and his mouth opening and closing "I'm Vahri and this is Narius"

"Tristan" the boy whispered, finally starting to come to his senses "I…err…" He sat up, slowly but leaned forwards on his knees to peer into the water at the two sirens

Narius smirked "Do you like the tails?"

"Don't tease the poor child" Vahri smacked his arm playfully

"I'm not a child" Tristan huffed "I'm 18"

Narius laughed "I'm over 200 years old"

Tristan just gulped audibly and scrambled up to his feet. He looked between the two beings in the water and shook his head. He bolted back along the pier and into the main part of town, disappearing from sight completely

"He left his coat behind…" Vahri sighed "We'd better return it"

Narius scoffed "You can do that. I'm going to explore"

And so the two split up with Narius swimming into the isolated centre of town and Vahri headed to where the boy had disappeared, seeking where his dwelling may have been if she had any hope of returning his belonging.

Vahri sighed in frustration as she tried to keep the coat above the water to ensure it remained dry. This could be an interesting morning


	7. Light

Ellen sat quietly at the old wooden table, gnawing quietly at a piece of bread. She was thrilled that she had been allowed to stay up so late. Or early, she mused in her mind as the saw the sun begin to filter through the rough glass of the window opposite her. She watched her mother as she paced worriedly across by the door. Tristan had been gone a worryingly long time.

Ellen was worried, of course. But, to be honest, the bread was at the forefront of her mind right now. She glanced up as a shadow flickered in front of the window, heading towards the door

"Tristan's back" she muttered with her mouthful as, in true 'Tristan fashion' her older brother came stumbling through the door with minimal grace

He slammed the door behind him and leant against it

"It's them!" he gasped "They're back"

Ellen jumped up, abandoning her bread "What? The mermaids?! Can I see them?!"

"No, Ellen" Annice pulled her daughter back from the door "Tristan, where's your coat? You're soaking wet!"

Tristan's breathing slowed as he regained his breath "I left it at the pier after I fell in"

Annice stopped, leaving her daughter behind and grabbing hold of her son's shoulders

"You fell in? Did they touch you? Are you hurt? How _on earth_ did you get away?" she seemed panicked. Tristan, however, had begun to think over what they had said to him

"I'm fine. They…" he paused, shaking his head "…they put me back on the pier"

Annice pulled back "No. No they didn't. Merfolk will drown you. They always drown people; it's just what they do"

"No it's not, mother" he sat down, shaking his hands through his hair "They don't do that. They told me that they don't…"

"I don't care what they told you!" Annice shouted "They lied. They drowned your father and they'll drown you given the chance!"

"But they didn't, mother" Tristan interrupted, standing up and heading over to stand behind Ellen. He placed his hands on his little sister's shoulders. She winced as the cold water seeped into her clothes "They didn't drown me and they didn't drown Ellen. They could have but they didn't"

Ellen glanced up at her brother as wet, cold droplets fell from the ends of his messy damp hair and onto the top of her head "Get off me, drippy" she snapped and Tristan pulled his hands away

She seemed convinced by his argument though "Mummy, why do you think they want to kill us?"

Their mother sat down quietly and placed her head in her hands. Tristan hated her like this. She became child-like and stubborn

"They killed your father, children" she glared at them, making Ellen and Tristan feel as if they had betrayed their own parents "They will kill you… they're just biding their time"

"Come on, Ellen" Tristan ushered his sister up the stairs. Mother was beginning to disturb Ellen "You can sleep in my room tonight. We'll stay in tomorrow morning"

"You mean _this_ morning" she giggled, taking her brothers hand "It's almost light"

Tristan smiled at his little sister and let her run into her own room to put her night-dress on. He simply changed his clothing, pulling on his clothes for tomorrow. He'd only be asleep for a few hours anyway. He'd slip out to work and let Ellen sleep on. She needed the rest

Ellen sprinted back into the room and launched herself onto Tristan who had already laid back. She sighed at him calmly as both of them shut their eyes.

"Tristan" her sleepy voice mumbled through the silence. Tristan didn't open his eyes

"Yes, Ellen"

"Do you think they'll come back?" She didn't need to say who she was talking about

He shrugged, jolting his little sister "Well, so long as they bring my coat"

Ellen laughed again and Tristan smiled down at her

"Now, go to sleep" he muttered and Ellen finally went quiet

Tristan sighed "I don't think you need to worry about the merfolk anymore" he wasn't sure if he was trying to reassure himself or Ellen "I don't think they'll harm us…"


	8. Narius

_**Goodness, I just realised how Ellen is getting really obsessed with bread. I think I should stop writing about bread now. My own writing is making me feel weird…**_

Narius hadn't been entirely honest with his friend. He had wanted to be truthful. He always did everything with best intentions. Maybe he caused trouble along the way but it was only for laughs.

This time, he'd overstepped the mark. He should have told Vahri the truth.

He'd been up to the surface before. All through his life during the hibernations, Narius would leave his cocoon empty and spend the months alone in shallower water, keeping out of the sight of whoever was on watch that winter. He'd poke his head above water and watch the people there. He longed to be able to speak with them; to learn their customs and to trade with them. Based on how they valued anything shiny, he imagined the crystal growths at the bottom of the lake would be worth a king's ransom.

But it had come at a price. He'd noticed it earlier that week. His eyes had begun to decompose. Black mould was forming in the middle of his eyes and only expanding the more time he spent in the open air. It was probably a human disease or something that only merfolk could catch. He didn't know. His eyesight hadn't changed yet but he imagined that would change soon.

Narius, however, was not worried about himself. He was more worried for Vahri. This was yet to come for her. He could still tell her, of course. It wasn't too late to save her from the strange infection. Narius would tell her when they met up again later. Right now, he worried about his return to the colony. He didn't want to risk passing on anything to the rest of his kin. He couldn't ever go back, of course. It would just lead to sickness amongst the people that he loved.

He really didn't mean for bad things to happen at all. Life wasn't supposed to be about hurting people. He really had tried to protect them. Hence, why he had not told them about his surface adventures.

Narius sighed. He always got himself into trouble. His mother always told him that he was wasting himself on fanciful exploits of exploration and discovery. She was right. He was intelligent and thoughtful and, although he wouldn't like to admit it himself, quite attractive. He should have found a mate by now.

But that was another issue in itself. Vahri would have been the obvious choice there. Her family always bred hardy children who survived the winters. None of her family had died in the colds for eons, his mother reminded him. But Vahri was his friend. Narius had seen the people on the surface. Their mates were so much closer. It was real love. He did love Vahri but not like _that_. What he saw in laketown was so strong. Real people who really loved each other and not just because they thought they'd have good strong, children.

He sighed wistfully to himself. Humanity had a lot to offer him. He couldn't help but feel like he'd been born the wrong species. Maybe he'd been a man in his past life. Narius laughed to himself. He'd always wanted to try proper dancing like he'd seen at all the parties he'd observed, where people moved their legs gracefully to a rhythm that seemed so complex it had his head spinning just trying to keep up.

"Humanity would have suited me" he mused to himself out loud.

He liked to imagine the uproar that statement would have caused at home had he said it out loud.

The older merfolk still hated the humans for their forced isolation. They would kill if they could. As far as he was aware nobody had laid their hands on a human.

Narius himself hadn't drowned a person himself. But he'd seen them drown. The first time he went to the surface, somebody had seen him from their boat in the middle of the lake. They'd tipped off their boat in surprise and the cold water sent their body into shock. Narius could do nothing but watch is dismay as the old man had run out of breath on the lake bed. He could have saved the elderly man but then he'd have told the others of the existence of the merfolk and he couldn't risk the safety of his family. Instead he'd let him drown

It had happened 7 times since that day, 60 years ago. 7 more people had gone down beneath the surface and Narius had done nothing. After they were dead however, he'd pulled their bodies onto the shore to be found. They deserved to be lain to rest by their families he'd thought.

He also had compared himself, whilst dragging the bodies onto cold sand, to the legendary Nerthus, the mer-queen who had drowned so many to protect her own family. This sounded ridiculous but if legend was correct and his family were truthful about their origins, he was most likely one of her direct descendants. Very few others could make claim to this other than those in his own family.

Thinking on it more, that was probably the reason he got away with so much. He was practically royalty. Provided Nerthus had even existed in the first place…

Narius sighed to himself and poked his head above the surface. It was fully light and people would be up soon. He'd better go and find Vahri and convince her to return home…

 _ **I'm hoping this is a good chapter. 8 is my lucky number so I decided to focus on my favourite character, Narius for this one. Just a bit of exposition for you, really. Nothin' too fancy, like.**_

 _ **Seriously though, he's such a rogue-ish trouble-maker but he has the best of intentions, honest!**_

 _ **Anyway, I hope you enjoy,**_

 _ **Ellie**_


	9. The Coat and The Boat

_**I previously said that Narius was my favourite character but I've started to get really attached to Tristan now. Gurgh! Why do I have to treat my own characters like bloody people! Somebody slap me; remind me they're not real!**_

 _ **Tristan strikes me as a kind-of-adorable little dork. You know, the kind of guy that has loads of girls who are friends never has an actual girlfriend. I imagine him as letting anyone use him like a doormat and not even caring, so long as he'd helped them out. GROW A SPINE, YOU ADORABLE LITTLE SHIT!**_

 _ **Anyways, on with the tale…**_

 _ **Ellie x**_

Tristan got up just three hours after Ellen has fallen into deep sleep. He himself flitted in and out of consciousness, unable to immerse himself fully.

He pushed his hair back over his head only to sigh as it flopped back into place. It would do for today

He pulled his satchel over his shoulder and braced himself for the cold, having almost forgotten about his missing coat. He pressed a kiss to Ellen's head as she shifted in her sleep. Tristan gently patted down the stairs, past his mother who had fallen asleep at the kitchen table earlier that morning. She only really looked happy when she was asleep, oblivious to the world around her. The disappearance of their father had hit her harder than Tristan would have ever thought possible.

As he stepped out of the front door there was a sickly familiar splashing below him

"Oh god" he breathed, turning pale and breathing shallowly "You're back again. I'm cursed"

Indeed, below him, one of the merfolk was smirking, her arms folded across the wood of the platform with his coat folded up next to her.

"I think 'cursed' is a little rude" she smiled up at him "I only came to give your coat back"

"Yeah, thanks" he mumbled as he leant down to scoop it up. He pulled it on swiftly and then glanced down at the mermaid properly

"You've got bigger" Tristan muttered, his brows meeting in a heavy frown "Much bigger…"

Vahri laughed "I think it's because I'm closer to you now and its light. You're just seeing me better"

Tristan nervously sat cross-legged on the platform, glancing around nervously to check nobody was nearby

"No" he said, trying to peer through the milky white eyes to find something more… human "You've definitely gotten bigger since the first time I saw you"

Vahri laughed again and Tristan found the noise unnerving. Then he jumped back as Vahri pulled herself onto the platform to sit with her tail dangling in the water. She turned to him and grinned. Tristan nervously laughed when her sharp canines protruded below her bottom lip

"Errr…." He blushed, glancing over her "You're not…errr… I mean you're not wearing…" he gestured towards his own chest and then pointed to her, trying to maintain steely eye contact

Vahri looked confused "You mean I'm not wearing anything over my breasts? No, you're right I'm not. Mermaids don't"

Tristan blinked "Why? Don't you want to keep them away… from people looking?"

"Looking?" she smiled at him "We don't mind people 'looking'. They're a part of our bodies, why should we? Don't you like them?"

Tristan laughed at first but after glancing at her, head cocked to one side in confusion, it became apparent that she hadn't been teasing and actually wanted him to answer the question. So he just changed the subject

"Thanks for my coat…back" he stammered, shrugging it together for emphasis "You kept it dry" he observed

She nodded, still sat on the edge staring at him

He knelt down near her and frowned "I'm convinced you've gotten bigger, you know"

Vahri looked down at herself. She couldn't see what the young man was talking about. She seemed exactly the same as she had been yesterday. Before she could question him, there was a cheer from the other side of the house and Vahri jumped, throwing herself back into the water to hide

"It's okay" Tristan whispered, glancing at her "They're just sending the dwarves off… and that Hobbit. They're making their way to the mountain. They'll reach Erebor by nightfall"

Vahri looked up at his from below and smiled "I'm going to get a closer look"

Tristan shook his head "They'll see you. You'll get harpooned!"

She laughed "I'm aquatic, Tristan. I'll be underwater"

"Right" he murmured "I have work to get to"

He jumped back again as she suddenly threw her hands onto the planks "What kind of work?"

Tristan blinked "Errr… just to bring in money, you know. Up here, we errr… we have to earn money to pay for food. We do that by working" he pulled a coin out of his pocket and held it out for Vahri "That's what our money looks like"

Vahri turned it over in her hand "Yes. These fall into the water sometimes. I have lots. They're all bigger than this though"

Tristan shook his head "No. All our coins are this size. They have different things written on them because they're worth different amounts but they're all this size" then he paused "Did you say you had lots of these? Where?"

She shrugged "I collect them. I have many in pots at the bottom of the lake"

"I…errr…." Tristan stopped "I don't want to steal from you but I don't suppose we could have a pot, could we? It would help a lot of people out, here"

Vahri nodded "If it will get you things then you can have all of it. All it's doing is forming algae at the bottom of the lake. Now, I have to go. I want to see the dwarves. But I'll be here later, perhaps"

Tristan nodded "I'm sure I'll see you sometime. Just… be careful"

Vahri smiled and dipped quickly below the surface.

She listened carefully as she heard Tristan's boots clunking away before she darted further down-stream, searching for the bottom of a boat. Vahri came across a few different ones before finally finding the boat the dwarves were in. It had already set off to the sound of cheers and band music. She remained underneath the boat, following its slow course down the main canal of lake-town.

When it reached open water, Vahri could hear better the sounds of dwarven foot-steps treading harshly on the wooden decks of the vessel. They sounded different to human walks. Dwarf footsteps had a much lower centre of gravity, far more compact and robust than those of men.

The mermaid suddenly realised that she had two choices. She could follow the dwarves up the mountain, swimming easily up fast flowing streams to the smaller pools, eventually making it to the small moat at the very front of the mountain. Or, she could swim back to Narius, back to home and the dark, visit Tristan, bring him the 'coins' for which he asked and then disappear back into the depths.

It wasn't exactly a hard choice

She swam onwards with the boat, keeping care to stay underneath it. Neither scale nor fin could protrude from beneath the boat. If they saw her, she'd have a lot of explaining to do. No doubt that they too believed in the 'treachery of the merfolk'. Vahri would have to keep herself in check, to ensure she wasn't spotted…

 _ **-X-X-X-**_

 _ **Cool. Okay. So, this is a last minute upload. I'm jetting off to get some stuff done in Turkey and that'll take about two weeks so I thought that I'd upload a chapter now to last you the two weeks. Take-off's in three hours! Tally-Ho!**_

 _ **Ellie x**_


	10. Out of Sight

_**I'm back, lovelies. Problem solved. Thanks again to all the new favourites and follows. It really means a lot to me to know that people are enjoying my writing. Brand new chapter for you here. The story's just beginning…**_

 _ **-X-X-X-**_

Bilbo tilted his head upwards shyly to glance at Thorin, who was still gazing up at the approaching mountain with whimsy and wonder plastered all over his face. The Hobbit quickly tucked his head back into the cloak he had been provided by the people of laketown and nestled his chin against his chest. Thorin remained stood above him and Bilbo had to be careful not to lean back against his legs too far, in case he pushed the dwarf lord overboard.

The two were situated at the bow of the boat as it made its way across the chilly lake, having left the forsaken wooden town along with Fili, Kili, Bofur and Oin far behind them.

There was uneasiness along the journey, a sort of unnecessary silence that lay across the boat as thick as the fog. Bilbo would have thought the dwarves would be happier to finally be going home. Maybe it was because Bofur normally did most of the talking

Or the fact that they were about to come face to face with the dragon that killed thousands and ruined the lives of many more. Right…

Bilbo had forgotten about that small detail.

Before he could open his mouth there was a harsh clunk and a low pained hiss as the boat lurched to the side dangerously and something splashed in the water next to them.

Bilbo jumped away from the edge of the boat, almost toppling it again whilst the dwarves, as usual, pulled weapons of all kinds out of various pockets and scabbards, ready to defend their king and their burglar. Not that Bilbo Baggins needed defending _thank you very much_.

"Merfolk!" Bilbo cried, launching himself towards the edge of the boat. He peered into the murky dark water but could see nothing

"Don't be silly, Bilbo" Ori frowned, pulling at his own fingers to try and chase away the cold "Mermaids have been extinct for many hundreds of years. There have been none here for centuries"

The Hobbit shook his head, gazing at Thorin "No. There was a boy in laketown. He said that he saw them. Two of them, a male and a female"

Thorin shook his head, dismissing Bilbo's worries ad he lifted the Hobbit up from under the arms to help him stand "Nonsense Bilbo" he muttered but he leant away from the edge of the boat all the same.

"Even I don't remember the Mer-people" Balin sighed "They were long before my time. Though, my mother told me of them often. She always was fascinated with the forsaken things"

Ori nodded "I used to read books in the scroll rooms and libraries of the Blue Mountains. But they were only old legends. Any factual information on the water-nymphs was lost when Smaug took Erebor"

Thorin smiled "Well, Ori, when we arrive you shall be welcome to read all the books you can get your hands on. I'd very much like to make you the Royal Librarian of Erebor, if you'd accept the role"

Ori went bright red and attempted to keep his composure but Bilbo frowned as he heard a small 'squee' erupt from the dwarf's throat

The hobbit still couldn't shake an odd feeling in the back of his head and, eventually, Bombur voiced his concern aloud

"But what about the hissing" he said with slow consideration

Bilbo nodded quickly, straightening his cloak out. "He's right" he said, walking up to Thorin with deliberate attempts to seem authoritative, lest the dwarf king not heed his warning "When the boat tipped, something hissed. Like a pained hiss. Somebody…" he stopped " _something_ hit the bottom of the boat. With a great deal of force and I don't want to be on the wrong side of it if it decides it wants to meddle with us"

Thorin raised his eyebrows with faint amusement at Bilbo's slight fear "Mr Baggins, we're going to retake a mountain from a dragon and you are scared of some _fish_?"

Bilbo frowned heavily "Yes, I am scared. At least we know that we will be fighting a dragon. We don't even know what _this_..." he gestured to the water "…even is! We don't know what it wants and we don't know what it's going to do" He stopped for breath, glancing around the boat.

There was silence and then a sudden splash from next to them. The company's heads all spun to where ripples were now spreading malevolently across the lake. Bilbo swore he saw something glint beneath the waves before it disappeared. Then there was silence

"We need to get off the water"


	11. Out of Mind

Vahri squeezed her eyes shut and shivered at the very bottom of the lake. Some 20 metres above her she could make out the bottom of the boat.

She hadn't seen the freshwater shark until it had been right in front of her. She'd lurched upwards; fully aware that whilst it may not consider her a meal it could still consider her a threat. Unfortunately, Vahri had moved upwards with a great deal of force, her entire body smashing against the bottom of the boat and almost toppling it. She hissed loudly in pain.

Vahri swore that the 'hobbit' had looked right at her but she'd moved too far down into the depths for him to see much more.

The shark had long since disappeared but she had kept sight of the boat.

 **-X-X-X-**

He'd searched far and wide for her. There was no sign at all. Narius dreaded to think of her, caught in some fisherman's net. Or worse, conversing with the _boy_.

It was official, he thought. He didn't like 'Tristan' one bit.

That being said, it was at least worth trying to talk to the boy. He could have some inkling as to where Vahri had disappeared to.

That is how Narius found himself in front of the market-place of Laketown, only his shoulders and head peeking out of the water as he spied the boy at his stall on the very edge of the square. He was right next to the waterside, fortunately for Narius.

The marketplace was starting to clear out as it reached the afternoon, the sun beginning its slow and languorous descent over the surrounding landscape. A few people remained conversing, but not buying, in the square

Narius yanked some damp, slippery water-weed off the post in front of him and flung it at Tristan to gain his attention. It connected with his face with a satisfying 'slohp' noise

"Aurghhhh!" Tristan shrieked, waving his arms and trying to swipe the surprise projectile off his cheek. It fell to the floor and Tristan watched as it disappeared between two planks, slipping back into the water. As Tristan leant down to try and work out what the object was before it disappeared into the depths, a marbled black and white eye quickly appeared between the slats and Tristan fell backwards in shock.

"Hey! Man-child!" Narius whispered loudly upwards "It's me"

Tristan pulled a face that seemed somewhat akin to astonishment but with an impossible amount of frowning "I can bloody see that! What are you doing? Is your sister down there?"

Narius blinked "She's not my sister. What's wrong with you?! She's technically my third cousin"

" _Technically_?!" Tristan asked "What does that even mean, ' _technically'_?"

"It means she _is_ but she's also supposed to have my future children as well" Narius shouted

Tristan's eyes bugged out more "Man, that's disgusting! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"It wasn't exactly my choice" Narius shout-whispered, aware that people were still around them "It's kind of a family deal. Our parents chose our life partners so it's _technically_ their fault"

"There we go with that word again" Tristan was about to start on a rant when he received a harsh jab in the ribs.

"Are you arguing with the floor?"

Tristan rolled onto his back, only to come face to face with the faces of Alesia and Artemis who were peering down at him with worry on their faces.

Tristan turned his head slightly to the right to peer between the wooden slats he was lying on, only to see Narius slip under the water after mouthing 'You're on your own' to him

"Quite… possibly…?" Tristan wondered why he had posed his answer as a question

Artemis placed his hand out to help him up and Tristan took it. As much as he wanted to hate the boy, he just couldn't fault him.

"Are you alright?" Artemis asked "You've turned very white"

"No, no…" Alesia reached out to dust Tristan's shoulders off "He always looks like that, the shocked expression too. It's his default"

There was a pause whilst Tristan stared at her

"Oh, it was a joke, Tess" she laughed "Do lighten up a little"

Tristan 'humphed' awkwardly in the back of his throat before pushing his hands in his pockets and staring down at his right foot. He twisted it about, backwards and forwards, on his heel before stopping and glancing back at the couple in front of him

"So… how about those dwarves, hey? Crazy, right?" He truly could think of nothing else to say

Alesia clapped her hands together and jumped, her hair bouncing slightly "Wonderful, isn't it? Our town can be restored with the gold from that mountain and everything will be perfect. They may even rebuild dale! I've never been there, father says it's too close to that dragon to be safe but I've heard that it could be rebuilt. It will be…"

"It'll end in tears"

Tristan and Alesia spun around to Artemis who just shrugged after cutting off his date's ramble.

"This can only go badly. I can just feel it" he insisted, almost supressing a shiver "That dragon is best left alone. I wouldn't want to be disturbing him anytime soon"

Tristan smirked slightly "Nobody has seen that dragon in forever. He could be dead"

Artemis just shrugged again "If you want to believe it, feel free. I'd rather we live out our lives as they are. We may be poor but we are alive"

Alesia seemed to consider this before frowning "It's probably dead, right?"

Tristan turned to peer over his shoulder at the mountain behind him. He wasn't sure if it was just Artemis' foreboding words or his own doubtful nature but he didn't feel as though this was going to go well at all. He turned back to Alesia.

She had always been a delicate thing, tiny in every single way. Tristan shot her a reassuring smile and Artemis pulled a hand around her shoulders to squeeze her close

"We'll be fine" Tristan said and waved as the pair turned to go

"Take care of yourself, Tristan" Artemis called back

He nodded slowly "And you"

Once they were both out of sight, Tristan strolled across to the edge of the market square to where the platform ended and he sat down, his legs dangling just above the surface. Narius popped up quickly, consideration on his face as it emerged from the cool water

"What's up?" Tristan asked, his head angling to one side "Where is Vahri? Should I be worried?"

Narius shook his head slowly "She's probably fine. I'm just over-reacting" He paused "I was going to ask about something else, though"

"Ask away"

"It came to mind whilst I was listening to you three getting all worried about that dragon" he stopped for breath whilst Tristan nodded for him to go ahead "What were the last four lines of that song? The one you sang earlier when I said you sounded like a woman?"

Tristan ignored this remark and just recited the end

"The streams shall run in gladness,

The lake shall shine and burn,

And sorrow fail and sadness

At the Mountain-king's…"

"Yeah!" Narius shouted "That's the one. _The lake shall shine and burn_. There's a prophecy just like that one that we have down below" he gestured to the bottom of the lake

"Oh, no. That's not a prophecy that's just a song" Tristan insisted but Narius just waved him off

"Prophecy, Song. They're one and the same where I come from" He frowned "But the issue is that my people have a prophecy that states that when the fire returns to the lake so, too, will they"

Tristan frowned "I don't understand…"

"You don't need to!" Narius was beginning to become panicked "It's a long story involving some drownings, a mass slaughter of my people and some magical mermaid woman from whom I may or may not be directly descended… but that's not the point!"

Tristan stared at his new friend, becoming worried by his usually calm and sarcastic demeanour

He continued anyway "My people aren't like Vahri and I. They're not nice at all. They want revenge for what happened all those years ago. It was a massacre! If that lake truly does burn when that dragon comes then it won't just be some overgrown lizard that you have to worry about. The merfolk will kill everyone they can get their hands on"

"Why would they do that?" Tristan's eyes were wide

Narius was now equally panicked "Because they think they _have_ to! It's prophecy, almost a religion!"

There was silence

"We have to warn the town, now!" Tristan jumped up "Oh fuck, nobody is going to believe me!"

Narius considered for a moment, the blood rushing through his head, his conscience taking on Vahri's voice, trying to get him to see reason

"Yes they will" Narius insisted and Tristan looked confused

' _Don't do it, you idiot!'_ He had to ignore the voice

"How? Nobody ever believes me!"

' _Don't, Narius. For once, think about what you're doing…"_

He took a breath and glanced up Tristan

"They will if I tell them…"


	12. The Lonely Mountain

_**So, massive apologies are in order. I had to venture back into Europe to sort out some stuff and meet up with some old family of mine and then sixth form started right back up again and I was thrown into the proverbial 'deep end' as it were with more philosophy essays than I could deal with. Unfortunately all my lovely little characters were cast 'out-to-sea' as I tried to 'keep myself afloat' academically speaking and remain with my head 'above the surface' (I'm so sorry, I'll stop) in terms of school work. Luckily, I've found a nice calm little 'tide pool' (you have no idea how sorry I am) between projects where I can get some writing done.**_

 _ **(I apologise but this chapter will be very short. I'd like to say it's for effect but it's actually because I'm just lazy)**_

 _ **Thanks for being so patient with me,**_

 _ **Ellie x**_

The boat had stilled long ago and the company had begun their climb higher into the rocky plains that sloped away from the mountains. Vahri remained on their tail, swimming upstream vigilantly and with single minded determinedness. Once or twice she feared she had lost them as they diverted long distances from the stream. Luckily, they always headed back towards it, close enough for Vahri to follow but far enough away that they didn't see her leap between stronger waves in the ever increasing current pushing against her.

She was growing exhausted, her fins aching and her ears throbbing as the water rushed past her. Without the promise of adventure to quell the nag of her curiosity, Vahri knew she'd have given up long ago. More than a few times she had to stop to allow her lungs to adjust to the altitude and the shallower waters but she pushed on for fear of losing them. It reminded her of the old legend, of Nerthus who swam for 7 days and 7 nights with her mate against the fiercest currents to save her unborn children.

Vahri wished that Narius was with her now, to keep her pushing onwards. This was the hardest thing she'd ever done in her life and it was getting more difficult with each breath she took.

Suddenly, she stopped as the water grew stiller. Not calm, exactly, but better than they had been for the last few hours of her journey. The water around her was suddenly a lot darker than it had been. She knew the sun was setting but the rate at which the water had cooled was alarming. Upon resurfacing, Vahri realised the stream had wound into a crevice in the ground and either side of her was now a steep rock face. It rose a good 5 metres above her but she could just make out the pinnacle of the mountain above the ground line, seeming to peer at her from where she bobbed in the icy river.

Vahri followed the water further, finally reaching as far as she could. Her vision was blurry from exhaustion and her arms ached as she pulled herself the final stretch. She took a harsh gulp of air as her head broke the surface and stared around her with fogged vision. She was at the very base of the mountain, almost right in front of the main door of Erebor. Glancing up, she knew she could swim no further as only a weak waterfall seemed an option to continue and Vahri couldn't manage it. Forgetting all common sense and the need to remain concealed she spread her arms out on the rock with her shoulders out of the water, closed her eyes and drifted out of consciousness.


	13. An Unexpected Journey

"You're not telling them. Nobody in this town is ever going to know"

There was an awkward silence between the two as they stared at each other. For once, Tristan had said something with conviction. Neither the man nor the merbeing had experienced this before and it stunned them both equally.

"And I don't mean that I just don't like the idea" Tristan continued "I mean, it's just not happening and if you ever say something like that again I'll fillet you and sell you at my stall by the pound"

Narius wasn't the type to heed warnings but an eerie shadow fell across Tristan's face as his threat was spoken and Narius decided to keep his mouth closed on the matter. He opened it again quickly though to speak of a different subject.

"We need to find Vahri" he said "Do you have _any_ clue where she could be? We have to get back to our people and make sure they all stay asleep"

"She said she was going to follow the boat" Tristan said after thinking for a moment

Narius looked irritated "Which boat? There are hundreds in your hell-hole of a town"

"Yeah, thanks for that" Tristan muttered "The one with the travellers in it; the dwarves and the Hobbit. They're going up to the mountain as we speak. They'll probably be there by now"

Narius sighed "I need to go and get her"

Tristan nodded "If we set out now, we'll be able to…"

"I didn't say _we_ , I said I" Narius snapped, turning to begin the long swim to the mountain "I'm going alone. You'll only slow me down"

"Oh shut up!" Tristan shouted "I'm sick of you telling me what _I'm_ going to do. I'm coming with you because it's _my_ choice not _yours._ I care about what happens to Vahri and I don't want you to die up there either"

Narius sighed "What do you propose we do?"

Tristan began to walk across the square back towards his home as the sun began to hide behind the landscape and Narius followed him, swimming underneath the wooden structures.

They arrived at the small house within minutes and Tristan pulled the family boat out from under its cover. He began to untie its holdings and prep it for the journey "We're sailing there. How long can you survive out of water?"

Narius shrugged and placed his hands tentatively on the edge of the platformed wooden pathway in front of the house "I don't know. Maybe an hour or so"

"Right, because I'm not having you swim the whole way. You'll exhaust yourself and then you'll be no use to anyone" Tristan stood up straight with his hands on his hips as the boat was loosed from its ropes and began to float in the space between the houses, ready to be launched onto the great wide lake.

He looked up at the light coming from his window and watched his sister and mother move about inside. Something had just come out of the oven to be put out for dinner and his mother was having a hard time keeping Ellen away from desert.

"They'll be okay without you"

Tristan spun around out of his daydream to see Narius sat with only the tip of his fins dangling in the water. He took up a great deal of space on the boat and looked wildly uncomfortable at the angle he was in. Tristan wanted to laugh but he knew the fish-man was only trying to comfort him and so he quelled his cackles.

"Yeah, I know. I just worry" Tristan lowered himself into the boat and cast off, beginning to row away from his home as the water grew dark to reflect the sky above it

Narius sighed as they began the long journey out onto the lake

"I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Everything will be there when you get back"


	14. Shorelines

_**So thank god my muse has drifted back to me on this one. The observant amongst you will have noticed that I have never finished any of my multi-chapter stories. That's your fun fact of the day from me. So I know it seemed obvious to (as … put it) 'jinx him' like that but I just really want you to feel for Tristan, you know. He's definitely my favourite self-created OC and he's been through some crazy shit this week, right?**_

 _ **Ellie x**_

Every 20 minutes, Tristan was disturbed from his steady pattern of rowing when Narius threw himself off the boat, only to climb back in seconds later. He knew it was important for the creature to stay hydrated but there was a freezing puddle of water swishing around the bottom of the boat now and it was soaking into his boots.

Between swims, Narius spent his time swishing his tail about languidly in the air whilst gazing sadly at his reflection. Tristan decided to break the silence

"So, is the eye thing normal?"

Narius looked up and his tail stilled in mid-air, one eyebrow cocked "I'm sorry?"

Tristan continued to row and shrugged "There's black in your eye. It wasn't there before"

He sighed "It's an infection. I think it's killing me"

The boy looked worried "Does it hurt? How do you cure it?"

There was silence "I don't know how to cure it. No one else in our colony has ever got something like this. I think it's being out in the open air so much. It's not good for our kind, we've always known that but this is proof and it doesn't hurt but it scares me"

"And the skin and the growing?" Tristan's rowing sped up "Is that part of it?"

Narius looked directly at the boy with confusion written on his face

"You know, your skin has got darker and you have _definitely_ grown, you can't deny it"

Tristan was right. His skin had lost its translucence and the pearly-sickly sheen was gone from his joints. It almost matched Tristan's now a few shades lighter but… normal looking. And he was correct about the growth too. Now that Narius looked at himself next to Tristan, the boy didn't have such big proportions anymore. Again, he matched Narius

Tristan grinned "It's not an infection" he stopped rowing "Don't you see? You're getting better!"

The sea creature only boggled at him in shock

"Listen" Tristan began again "Your kind have been underwater for centuries, you had to adapt fast to the harsh conditions. Now you're out in the open, all those healthy traits are coming back, proper skin-tone because of the sun, the growth because you have more air and the eyes…" he paused to look at Narius who had said nothing "Don't you get it? It's not an infection; it's your pupil coming through now that you're seeing with proper sunlight"

There was complete silence across the lake as the males stared at each other

"You're insane" Narius insisted

Nobody spoke for a good few minutes whilst Tristan gathered himself again and continued to row, as the shores of the desolation came ever closer

As the boat rounded the final hundred metres Narius' breath began to hitch in his throat and Tristan stopped, letting the boat drift.

"Are you alright?"

Narius had gone very pale and was clutching the side of the boat, staring out to the water

"You're breathing's gone strange…."

"Yes I know, thank you!" Narius spat out, trying to regulate his breath "I just need to get back in the water"

But as he began to weakly tip himself forwards he lacked the energy to slide in properly and the boat tipped

Tristan squealed strangely and tried to tip the boat back to being level but it was too late and the whole thing capsized quickly, sending both boy and half-boy-fish into the chilly depths.

Said boy resurfaced quickly, grabbing onto the overturned boat and hauling himself up, only tipping it again. Instead he began to wade slowly towards the shore with the boat. Once the water was only at knee-level he stopped to look back out at the stilled water.

"Narius?!" he called; trying to remind himself that merfolk couldn't drown. "You okay?"

He barely finished when the surface broke and the coughing and spluttering of a desperate man ensured

"Gods, help me!" he screeched and Tristan wanted to laugh… until he realised something was dreadfully wrong. Narius seemed terrified

"What's happened to me?" he spluttered, trying to keep his head to the surface "My tail… it's not… it doesn't feel… right"

Tristan stood there, stunned before springing to action and throwing himself back into the water. Maybe he'd been wrong about the 'getting better' thing.

The boy grabbed hold of Narius' arm once he stopped thrashing and pulled him gently but swiftly towards the shoreline, dragging him up to the dry pebbles.

"Oh sweet Gods…" He muttered

Initially, Tristan couldn't tell what had happened. There was blood everywhere, spread by the icy water that covered Narius' entire tail. As it began to soak off and onto the stones below, Tristan identified what had happened.

"Did you do that… on purpose?" he asked

Narius went a deathly shade of white "Oh gods…"

His tail had split directly in two and the fins at the end had divided into two very bloody but very definite feet. The new 'legs' still looked a little odd with the occasional patch of black scales everywhere. The most disturbing part was the rough bloody lines that scraped down the inside of each leg where his tail had roughly split in half.

There was silence. Tristan dared not say anything

That's when Narius started screaming. Long terrified, pained screams from where the cold had worn off and the pain had properly started to settle in. He grabbed at his legs and tried to comprehend what had happened to him but it was clear he didn't understand at all, nor would he anytime soon.

Tristan didn't understand either so he simply sat down in shock and waited until Narius' panic had died down


	15. Liquid Panic

_**Oh my goodness, again, this chapter has been a long time coming. So I recently turned 18 which is fun and on top of all that I got selected as head of backstage for the production this year.**_

 _ **Eeeep, as if somebody gave**_ me _ **a position of responsibility!**_

 _ **Also, anyone here watch**_ Gotham _ **? Oh my life I love that show!**_

 _ **Ellie x**_

Sometime after the initial panic had worn off, Narius was stumbling about on the edge between shore and water as Tristan tried to pull him back to prevent his imminent drowning should he venture too deep.

Tristan was beyond panicked, now delirious with confusion, pain and misery and he muttered and rambled under his breath relentlessly

"I have to get back. I'm supposed to be in the water. If I could just…"

Tristan cut him off and grabbed his shoulders, shoving him to the ground in the process "You need to stop and rest. You don't even know…"

"No. No, that's not it" Narius mumbled again, dragging himself along the cold pebbles "The water will fix everything. I have to get back to…"

"Stop!" Tristan tried to drag him back by his feet but Narius gave a harsh yelp like a kicked puppy as Tristan grabbed at the still tender flesh of his newly acquired limbs "You don't understand…"

"No, you don't understand!" Narius flipped himself onto his back and pulled himself up, knocking Tristan to the floor "I am _nothing_ without my tail and I am _nothing_ without the water. I need them!"

Tristan tried to calm him but before he could, Narius grabbed the back off his neck and thrust Tristan's face into the pebbles, his nose exploding in a mess of hot blood and pain that travelled backwards into his skull and behind his eyes.

Narius dragged him clumsily by the legs towards the water and Tristan knew the intent was to drown him. Thinking fast he flipped his weight upwards and onto Narius, holding him face down in the water. The ex-merbeing kicked and splashed but Tristan kept his head down until he finally went still. Before the last bubbles had stopped rising, Tristan pulled the now limp head of Narius out of the water and checked his chest. It rose and fell jaggedly and Tristan knew he was still alive.

Tristan looked at his semi-dead friend and then glanced at the upturned boat. Sighing outwardly, he picked Narius up unceremoniously and flopped his inactive body back down into the boat.

He stood, his hands on his hips, staring up at the long trek ahead of them to the mountain. He thought back to the way he'd looked at Erebor when he was still stood on the soggy, salt-saturated platforms of home. He turned his attention back to the tiny lights of Esgaroth that flickered dimly and for the first time he had a concept of just how huge the world truly was in comparison to the tiny town on the lake in which he'd grown up. He would never have guessed in his wildest dreams that he'd be aiding two members of the most feared species on the water.

He looked wistfully at Narius, willing him to sit up and smile at him. But he remained asleep and Tristan sighed heavily, yanking the rope tied to the helm of the tiny rowboat over his shoulder and beginning to drag it up the side of the mountain.

 **X-X-X**

When Vahri woke up she remembered instantly where she was. Her shoulders tensed as she lowered herself back into the water. The sun just finished setting and it had left angry cracked lines down the area of her back that had been exposed to the sun. The cool water aggravated the burn more as Vahri began to carefully paddle away from the rock she had clung too, back towards home. Her desire for adventure long forgotten, she wanted to be back with her hibernating family and Narius. She would gift Tristan with the coins he wanted and then disappear forever.

Away in the distance, Vahri thought she heard a cry. A loud shout did, indeed, seem to echo around the bottom of the mountain itself as darkness fell. She couldn't tell where the sound had come from at all as it bounced off each hill and outpost of rock.

The sound came again, this time of a different pitch but still obviously human. It sounded like arguing. Vahri's head darted around quickly trying to find the source of the noise. Her head stopped and fixed on its target as the early Twilight moon illuminated two tiny silhouettes in the distance. Back towards Dale, on a tall outcrop of rock, stood two young figures, bickering visibly between themselves.

Vahri began the swim back home, hoping to investigate the two figures on her way back. One of the slower rivers ran just by where they were stood and it would be easy to hear from there. As she set off, she chanced to glance back at the mountain that she has so desperately longed to see from the inside.

As she turned her head, she thought she saw the moonlight, glinting off one particular spot on the mountain as a number of small figures moved towards an opening where the dim light shone. When she spun her head back to double check, the opening in the mountain was gone and so too, were the small figures…

…The dwarves had made it into the mountain


	16. Move

_**So I'm sat in the common room writing this now. Nobody knows I write fanfiction so I feel like a fucking super-spy right now.**_

 _ **Saw the new**_ _Star Wars_ _ **. Frickin' loved it!**_

 _ **But anyway, on with our tale…**_

 _ **-XXX-**_

It took several hours for Vahri to reach the outcrop that she had seen the figures on. As she came closer, she knew that one of them was Tristan. She had assumed that the other one had been the boy he'd been speaking to a few times on the docks and at the market place but as she drew closer, she knew it wasn't.

It was Narius

With Legs

Before making herself known, she lurked in the small side-stream, just a few metres away from the boys who weren't aware of her presence yet. Vahri tried to get her head around Narius' new appearance from where he sat. His tail was gone and in its place were the legs that Vahri had spied back upstream. Narius was currently sat with his legs folded underneath him, still obviously unsure of them in his current state.

"Vahri!"

She was snapped out of her thoughts by Tristan's voice who had spied her from between the water weeds. Narius spun around to catch her eye and he smiled at her weakly. Vahri smiled back

Tristan knelt down next to her as she lifted her body from the water and sat on the bank. Narius shuffled over awkwardly, dangling his new _appendages_ into the chilly water. The three of them sat in silence for some time, staring at nothing in particular.

"What happened?" Vahri asked, nodding towards Narius' legs after a long pause.

Both men shrugged

"I don't know. I changed, I guess" Narius looked sadly at his feet that were turning grey and yellow in the cold water. He didn't even flinch "I got on the boat to come and find you because I couldn't swim all the way across the lake and then this happened"

There was another pause

"We were discussing it on the way up here" Tristan offered further explanation as the ex mer-man lapsed into silence "We think he changed as a result of all the time at the surface. There was a thing with his eyes that we thought was an infection but then there was the growing and now… well, look"

Vahri looked to where Tristan gestured and glanced at Narius in the eye who blinked rapidly as if he had something in it.

The milky white of his eyes had retreated to the edge and the black that had been in the centre was now rimmed with a shot of wobbly, yet oddly clear sea-green.

"I mean, he's not fully developed yet but he's almost…" Tristan paused again "…human"

The three went quiet again

"I think it's permanent" Narius whispered quietly

Vahri nodded and then glanced back down the hill with worry, trying not to think about losing her friend forever and changed the subject "How'd you get up here, walking already?"

Narius blushed awkwardly and Tristan gave a semi-laugh

"No" the human guffawed "I dragged him up here in the boat and he walked the last 20 odd metres"

Narius shrugged with embarrassment "It's harder than it looks. We got in an argument"

"Yeah" Tristan's eye twitched in agitation "About how you tried to _kill me_!"

Narius frowned "I thought you'd let that go! What else are you upset about now?"

"…Because it shouldn't take you ¾ of an hour to walk 20 metres!" Tristan snapped

Vahri sighed "That's what I heard then"

The boys looked up at her in confusion

"That's how I spotted you" she laughed "I heard you up here arguing. I actually first thought it was Tristan and the boy from the market"

"Artemis?" Tristan asked "No, he's still down in the town. Asleep, where I should be"

Narius stayed sat at the bank of the stream as Vahri lowered herself in the water, choosing to stay submerged to cool her burned back.

Tristan, however, stood up and glanced over at his town. Two or three dull lights glimmered from the boat-house where inspectors granted papers for returning barge-men but other than that there was no activity on the water. Tristan's thoughts returned to home and his body longed for his warm bed. His mother would notice he was gone before he could get back but if he lied and said he went for a walk she might just buy it. There was no hope for a day off work but maybe he could leave the stall early in the day and get some extra sleep that afternoon. Yeah, he had tomorrow all planned out.

But what to do about Narius? He was a problem. He couldn't just be left out in the water. There was no guarantee he'd change back at all and he was struggling to walk by himself as it was, there was no way he could actively fend for himself out on Esgaroth. It was bad enough for people who even had houses.

Tristan looked back at the shivering man who looked more like a boy than ever. His green eyes were still a little dull around the edges but there was no doubt they'd get brighter and the black of his hair was fading as bright red came in at the roots. He'd look a little different from everybody else, ethereal maybe, but still human looking. Maybe he could live with Tristan's family? Ellen would be besotted instantly but his mother would take a little convincing. Maybe the idea of another set of hands on the stall would sell it to her. They could just say he was a distant orphaned cousin. Nobody would even bat an eye.

He turned to Narius to voice this option to him

"I was thinking about your options, Narius and you're welcome to stay with us… if you wish" Tristan offered and Narius just nodded sadly, swishing his feet about in the stream whilst Vahri prodded his ankles in thinly veiled curiosity.

Before anything else could be said about making a move towards leaving, there was a huge reverberation that echoed around the valley and the three youths shot their heads up in shock. The noise died off as quickly as it came and there was silence again where they stood.

"What was that?" Vahri asked and Tristan shook his head, unknowing but listening for threat. If anything happened here they were in trouble. Narius was weak and couldn't go anywhere and he and Vahri would have no choice but to split up. Best case scenario it was just a tree falling at the base of the mountain. Worst case…

There was a noise again, this time like a great screaming, a warped disfigured roar of pain and anger followed by a few seconds of silence again.

Tristan swallowed bile "We need to move, now" he yelled, grabbing Narius by his under arms and hoisting the unsteady boy to his feet and pulling him along the outcrop of rock back towards Laketown as Vahri readied herself for the swim back.

Before they could get towards the boat there was a huge crash and the roar came again as a great glinting shape smashed its way out of the front of the mountain.

The three figures spun around in shock and stared as the huge golden shape twirled into the sky and dropped like a new moth from a cocoon, shedding what looked like a shower of sunlight. Right before it hit the ground from its descent; huge webbed expanses extended from its central body and carried it straight towards Tristan, Vahri and Narius on their outcrop of rock.

The three lapsed into silence and stared

"Fucking move!" Tristan screamed suddenly and Vahri dove beneath the water to hide whilst he and Narius stumbled quickly behind a boulder as the shape soared overhead and missed them entirely.

Tristan entirely forgot any immediate danger and jumped out from behind the boulder, leaving Narius to stare after him. Tristan stood on the edge of the outcrop as he watched the murderous figure soar, in silence, towards his home and family.

"I am fire…"

Tristan jumped back at the voice. He'd quite forgotten that the dragon was a sentient being, not just a weapon on wings

"I am death"

There was a moments quiet. All Tristan heard was the water break behind him as Vahri surfaced to watch and the scrambling of rock as Narius wandered uneasily towards him and placed a worried hand on his shoulder.

Tristan heard nothing else for some time except the whistling of wind and his own gentle breathing…


	17. The Fall

When Ellen woke up it was still dark. She didn't know quite what time it was exactly but she knew from her own odd yawns that it must have been some time in the early hours.

And that's when she began to panic a little. Because she knew, in a strange instinctive way, that something was wrong here. Her mother was still asleep and Tristan…

"Tristan?" she called into the darkness of the house.

He could have been outside, readying the boat for market in a few hours' time. Ellen dashed to the window the check

"Tristan?" she shouted again, glancing down between the houses.

A sudden noise caught her attention and she glanced up at the sky to identify it. The bell. The bell had never rung in Ellen's lifetime. At least, not like this. Not this fast. Whoever was ringing it was shouting something from the platform beneath the bell itself but Ellen couldn't make it out.

"Mother?" she called back into the house, panicking a little as people from the houses began to swarm around their boats in a blind daze, their shouting from the streets below beginning to drown out Ellen's own uneven breathing.

"Mother!" she called, louder now, as torches were lit in the streets and people were ushered into boats, carrying what they could as the bell continued to ring

As always, her mother's door was locked and Ellen tugged on the handle

"Mother!" she screamed "Mother, help!"

She heard footsteps from the other side of the door as Annice began to walk towards it, still sleepily unaware of the danger

"What is it, my darling?" she asked

Ellen moved away from the door and ran to the other side of the house, throwing herself against the window there to force it open.

She stared out at the cold night sky. That's when she saw it. The huge, iridescent shape gliding through the space between the mountain and lake-town

"Mummy?" she called again, quietly.

It was less of a question and more of a whimper as the moonlight reappeared from behind the shadow and Ellen squinted as the light hit her window.

The shape opened its mouth

-x-X-x-

Tristan stood perfectly still. The wind pulled at his long coat and sent it whistling around his ankles.

The town was burning. His town was burning

Shock prevented him from registering much else. Not the arms tugging on his shoulder, not the screaming in his ears. Nothing.

A slap to the face knocked him out of it and he came around to see Narius rubbing the piece of his face he'd just hit

"Sorry, man but it's for your own good" he muttered

Vahri was still screaming "We have to help them. Oh God, oh god, no, we have to do something. We…!"

"Vahri stop!" Tristan shrieked, glancing back out to the lake "They're gone. Everyone is gone"

"We don't have time" Narius' voice rose an octave as he began to drag Tristan with him "People are coming this way"

Sure enough, the figures of the dwarves were making their way up the hill, towards the outcrop the three of them were stood on.

Tristan looked back briefly at the mountain and the approaching shapes and turned quickly, walking with his hands in his deep, damp pockets and keeping his head up.

Vahri watched him with Narius stumbling after the young man and it was only now that she had begun to feel just how cold she was.

Vahri looked back at Tristan's retreating figure.

The water around her began to freeze over.

-x-X-x-

Tristan ignored his companions who trailed behind him morosely. He wanted to find his mother and Ellen. He had been completely devoid of hope until he'd seen figures wading from the depths onto the craggy shore. There were survivors, a lot of children and a few women. His family could be amongst them. Could be.

He felt strangely hot; unreasonably angry.

Perhaps it was because his boots hadn't been properly fixed by the cobbler and were letting in frost or maybe it was the holes in coat shoulder. Maybe it was because his hair was in his eyes.

It struck Tristan very heavily as he began to accelerate his movements with the incline of the mountain, one foot falling in front of the other jerkily, not slowing down.

He had run away

He had left his family. In the dead of night he had just rowed away and left them. He hadn't even thought twice about it.

Before he could follow the thought further he tripped.

Tristan yelped as the right side of his face took the brunt of the fall and his neck bent backwards painfully before he flipped over and somersaulted through the air, landing on his tailbone and beginning to roll forwards again. This time he gave another pained grunt as he tried to stick his left leg out to steady himself, only serving to launch himself partially into the air and slam back down on his right side, He rolled a few more times before coming to a halt on the charcoal bed of small black pebbles at the very last stretch of the mountain. Everything was quiet.

Tristan lay on his back, His arms out to either side of him, his right leg bent with his knee in the air and his foot on the floor. He took a deep breath in and it came out shaky with a pitched whistle in his throat and a sore ache.

Tristan threw his hands up to his face took another breath that piped and whistled. And then another and another. He was only grateful that the tears didn't freeze to his face.


	18. Silt

**NOTE: You all deserve another apology. I'm studying archaeology at university and I'm frequently away on digs. Wifi isn't a priority unfortunately and I don't have the means to upload as often as I'd like. Still, I 'm trying my best to upload when I can. Stick with me guys. Ellie x**

When Tristan had calmed himself he became aware of the distant splashing and shouting. Metres to his right were Vahri and Narius in the creek. Tristan picked himself up and strolled over carefully, eying the boy who, despite his previous transformation, was now wearing ill-fitting clothing.

"Where'd you get those from?" he quizzed

Narius shrugged

"I found them washed up" Vahri offered from in the small creek by Narius' feet. "They must have belonged to someone…" she turned her head slowly towards the lake.

There was still flame feeding off the remaining structures of the town and people were still being pulled from boats and out of the icy water

"You two lay low here. I'm going to help how I can and I'll find you both soon"

The mer-folk didn't argue. They only nodded and clung to the shadowy rocks whilst Tristan made his way over the frosty dried grasses between the flat black rocks.

The closer he got the more despair Tristan could feel. People were desperately searching for loved ones and others simply clung sobbing to corpses that were quickly growing cold. Young women dashed around offering assistance as nurses and the men tried to assist the wounded. A young child clung to a blanket someone had thrown around their shoulders. The child had hair like Ellen.

Despite the chaos there was a careful, unspoken order to it all. Do what you can, if you can for who you can. Tristan felt pride for his people and began to wade out into the icy lake to assist those still swimming.

"Tristan!" he heard behind him "Tristan, is that you?"

He spun quickly on his heel to look for the source of the shout. His eyes fell on a figure barely ten feet away.

Artemis.

He was soaked through. There was a cut over his brow and a nasty burn over his left shoulder that had pulled away and singed at his own shirt. His favourite coat was missing. His boots were mud soaked and his hands were covered with…

"…blood?" Tristan said it aloud, slowly stalking towards the other young man and reaching for his arms. "Artemis? Whose blood is that?"

Artemis trembled almost unnoticeably "She was alive when I found her, I swear. She was trapped under a wooden post. Your house collapsed. I thought I could get her out, Tristan I swear I tried so hard, she bled out whilst I was swimming with her. She was on my back I didn't notice she was gone until I lifted her onto the bank. She was alive when I found her…"

Artemis' panicked babbling drowned out as Tristan's gaze fell behind him. There was Artemis' favourite coat, Brown velvet with a one-of-a-king burgundy trim that must have cost a fortune and brass buttons that had previously shone so brightly, even in the dim light of the lake at winter. Now there was blood soaking through it.

There was a small shape lying flat underneath it and muddy blonde hair peeked out of the top, splayed across the damp earth. One tiny hand had fallen out from the coat, unconcealed, palm pointing upwards to the sky and colder and whiter than should be humanly possible.

"…I swear I tried to save her Tristan" Artemis' voice broke back through the wind.

The two boys walked slowly over to the tiny body and crouched beside it as Artemis slowly peeled back the coat away from her face

"Oh Ellen…" Tristan whispered "Oh Ellen I am so sorry"

Artemis said nothing and only brushed some dirt away from her face. Her eyes had already been closed and her mouth was slightly parted, her tiny nose pointing up towards the sky

Tristan gently reached under her neck and around her waist and gently pulled Ellen to him, propping her up gently against his shoulder as he brushed her hair back.

"Your mother was already gone Tristan. I couldn't carry her; she sank with the rest of the house"

Tristan nodded slowly, his eyes misting up and trying to focus on Ellen's tiny cold face

"Where is your family, Arty?"

The other boy shook his head. "They burned. I was already in the water but they burned Tristan. And I swam away because I'm a coward and I…"

There was a woman's shriek from a dozen metres behind them and both young men spun around to look

"That's Alesia's mother" Artemis swallowed heavily and got up to walk towards the older woman whose hands were thrown in front of her face. She was staring down at a lump on the floor "I'll be back soon Tess"

Tristan wanted to laugh at the nickname at a time like this. It no longer irritated him. It made him feel less angry. It made his feel less confused. It just made his feel less.

He gingerly placed his fingers over Ellen's left eye and pulled the lid up. The blue was already clouding over and stared blankly up at the sky over them. He closed her eye again and focused on placing her gently back onto the ground, re-arranging the coat over her face and laying in her in a line with the other lost children.

When he looked up, Artemis was making his way back over with fresh tears in his eyes. He wiped them away quickly.

"Alesia is dead. And both her brothers and her father" Artemis sat on the ground next to Tristan as they both gazed out "Her mother and uncle can't find enough material to cover them all"

There was silence for a short while. A short scuffle seemed to break out a short way along the shore.

"Is that Alfrid?" Artemis asked, squinting at the kerfuffle. Tristan glanced over to where the former master's deputy was attempting to snatch a blanket away from a woman who was handing them out to the injured. "Of all the people who died and that toad is still…"

Both boys let out a resounding "Ooooh!" as they watched Bain artfully stick his leg out, tripping Alfrid onto the ground

"I knew I liked that boy" Tristan smiled and Artemis laughed, clapping his hand over his friends back to which Tristan turned to smile at his new ally.

"Good kids. The youngest used to play with Ellen, didn't she?"

Tristan nodded "Definitely good kids"

There was another shout from where the small scuffle had taken place but now a circle was gathered around. Tristan and Artemis stood to walk over, the former stealing one last glance at Ellen's little figure under the ruined coat.

"It was Bard! He killed the dragon. I saw it with my own eyes!"

The boys looked to each other and joined the edge of the circle as more people piled in to see what was afoot

"He brought the beast down. Shot him dead with a black arrow"

There were resounding cheers and people surged forwards to clap Bard on the back. Very suddenly, there was a jubilant and brief celebration. It fell quiet again as Alfrid tried to open his mouth and Tristan and Artemis quickly backed out of the crowd as the other survivors turned their anger towards the master's deputy.

"They're going to lynch him" Tristan nodded back to the crowd as they walked away.

"Let them" Artemis growled "The rat deserves it"

They could hear Bard shouting above everyone else again but Tristan didn't stop to listen and Artemis followed. He made a beeline towards where he had left Narius and Vahri

"Where are we going?" Artemis asked, glancing back at the group of survivors and then towards the boy he was now following

"There are some people you need to meet" Tristan said

Bard could be heard loudly from the shore

"Follow me. We must salvage what we can!"

"We should help them retrieve supplies from the lake" Artemis argued, tripping after Tristan until they both reached the creek.

Narius was still sat behind two large pieces of rock, dipping his feet in the icy water. Vahri stayed with her head and shoulders poking above the still mirror, her hair damp but quickly drying.

"Oh Gods!" Artemis cried, stumbling backwards and trying to scrabble away after spying Vahri's dark tail. "They're real. They're real!"

"Shut up!" Tristan cried, pulling Artemis off the floor and dragging him back towards the bewildered looking duo. "Shut up and don't draw attention. They're harmless. This is Vahri and that one is Narius. He used to be merfolk but he's sort of changed and now he's like this"

Artemis still seemed to be trying to control his breathing when a shrill scream echoed from the shoreline of the lake where the main group of survivors were. Many more panicked yells followed it. There was a great deal of thrashing in the water.

"What in the hell was that?!" Narius asked, his eyes wide.

Tristan shared a look with Vahri "Stay here" he instructed the other two young men who eyed one another suspiciously but were ultimately more worried about the noise.

The female nymph slipped under the water coming up a dozen or so metres down the creek, close to the opening of the lake. From under the water there was a fog stirred up by the broken debris of laketown and she could see nothing. The water was no longer clear.

Tristan hopped along the lining of the creek until he reached the same point as Vahri and peered at the assembled group of people.

They all seemed puzzled and panicked. A group of half a dozen men searching and grasping under the water for something.

"She's gone?"

"But where? She screamed and then she slipped under?"

"It was only shallow water"

"It was Mirra, the dock owners daughter I swear"

"But she can swim"

"I know she can swim, there's no way she drowned"

"I tried to grab her. Something pulled her under"

Tristan struggled to make out what was going on and Vahri tugged at his ankle "Did someone just drown?"

"Mirra Anderson" he nodded "She just got married last month. But she's a good swimmer I know she is, there's no way she could have…"

There was another sudden scream from one of the men who'd been looking for the lost woman whose footing slipped out from under him and he quickly slid away from the bank, trashing and grasping in front of him as other men tried to grasp hold of his arms. Three of them managed to grab him firmly as he screamed, his head dipping below the water at some points

"It's got me! It's got me! Help me, somebody help…!"

There was an inhuman, shrill shrieking noise and a loud metallic hiss as the man was suddenly yanked, with a scream, below the lakes surface and the other men scrambled quickly back up to the shore as a trail of bubbles slowly stopped rising to the surface. The lake calmed again

"What in the name of gods was that?" one of them yelled

"I didn't see anything, I don't know"

"I heard it"

"We all heard it"

"Vahri?" Tristan asked, his head slowly turning to look at the nymph who was lowering her head below the surface to stare dead ahead at the seam between the creek and the inky lake. The silt and mud in the water shifted very quickly as something black and feathery flicked in the murk and disappeared into the depths. She brought her head back up again. Her eyes unblinking.

"They're awake"


End file.
